Stonehill Places Program Record Five On Capital One Academic All-District Men’s XC/Track & Field Team

EASTON, Mass. (June 2, 2014) – Stonehill College has placed a program-record five student-athletes on the Capital One Academic All-District I Track and Field and Cross Country first team as selected by NCAA Division II members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) from the North Region.

Senior Stephen Leonard (Chatham, New Jersey/Chatham) as well as juniors Daniel Cormier (Methuen, Massachusetts/Methuen) and Bryan Wilcox (Plantsville, Connecticut/Southington) all earn Academic All-District I honors for the second straight year, while senior Trent Fontanella (Pelham, New Hampshire/Bishop Guertin) and sophomore Nick Kirkpatrick (Carmel, Indiana/Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) have been named to the Academic All-District team for the first time. Stonehill's five Academic All-District selections better the previous program high of four in 2013 and a combined eight honorees with the women's programs. All five are now eligible for Capital One Academic All-America selection, by the Academic All-America Committee, to be announced on Wednesday, June 25.

Leonard earns Academic All-District honors for the second straight year, having recently graduated with a 3.38 cumulative grade point average as a biology major at the College. He has earned Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference honors once, following the 2013 Outdoor Track & Field season, and has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all eight semesters and Athletic Director's Honor Roll five semesters. Leonard participated in Stonehill's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program two years, researching the detection, sequence analysis and antibiotic sensitivity of Methylobacterium species.

Leonard is a three-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East Region performer for the Stonehill cross country and track & field programs. He placed ninth at the NCAA Division II East Region Cross Country Championship last fall, helping the Skyhawks to their first regional championship since 2007 and an 11th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships. Leonard also collected All-Region honors for indoor track in the 5000-meter run as he posted a sixth place finish at the New England Indoor Championships to earn All-New England honors in 14:52.72. He capped his career with All-East honors in the 10,000-meter run with his personal-best time of 31:47.93 at the Colonial Relays in April.

In addition to his three All-Region performances, Leonard is a three-time All-New England honoree, adding a pair of awards in the 10,000-meter run each of the last two years to go with his 5000-meter recognition this past winter. He placed eighth at the 2014 New England Championships (32:03.55) after finishing seventh in 2013 (32:44.68). Leonard earned All-Northeast-10 honors for the first time in his career after leading Stonehill to a third-straight NE-10 Cross Country Championship with his team-leading seventh place finish in 25:48 (8-kilometers). He also placed third overall in the 10,000-meter run at the 2013 and 2014 NE-10 Outdoor Track & Field Championships as well as the 5000-meter run at the 2014 NE-10 Indoor Championships.

Senior Trent Fontanella earns Capital One Academic All-District I honors for the first time. (PHOTO BY SportsPix)

Cormier earns Academic All-District honors for the second-straight year as well, having achieved a 3.49 cumulative grade point average as a business major at Stonehill, with a minor in English, at the conclusion of his junior year. He has earned NE-10 Academic All-Conference honors three times to date, with a pair of indoor awards (2013 & 2014) and once for outdoor track & field (2013), with the 2014 season to come. Cormier has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Roll status all six semesters at the College. Cormier is a member of "Surround Sound," a musical group on campus, having sung the National Anthem at home track meets and is Community Representative for Hall Council at Stonehill.

Cormier is a seven time USTFCCCA All-East Region thrower for Stonehill, collecting the honors for the weight throw during the indoor season and both the shot put and hammer throw this spring. He is a three-time All-Region performer at the outdoor shot put, collecting the honors for the hammer for the first time in his career this spring, to go with two weight throw and one shot put All-Region awards for indoor track & field. Cormier holds both the indoor and outdoor shot put school records, posting a record throw of 50-feet, four-inches to place fifth at the NE-10 Championships this spring, while his distance of 47-feet, eight-inches at the 2013 NE-10 Indoor Championships was good for fourth place and the school's indoor record.

Cormier, a four-time New England Championships qualifier, posted a personal-best distance of 152-feet, nine-inches in the hammer throw at the Colonial Relays this spring to reach All-Region status for that event. He placed third in the weight throw at the NE-10 Indoor Championships this past February with a distance of 54-08.

Wilcox rounds out Stonehill's three two-time Academic All-District selections, having earned a 3.69 cumulative grade point average as a business major at the conclusion of his junior year. He is a three-time NE-10 Academic All-Conference selection, earning the NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award for cross country this year, collecting a pair of cross country Academic All-Conference honors (2012 & 2013) and one for Outdoor Track & Field (2013) to date. Wilcox has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all six semesters and Athletic Director's Honor Roll four semesters while earning the Division II Athletic Director's Association (ADA) Academic Achievement Award for having a cumulative GPA over 3.50.

Wilcox is a two-time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer with the cross country and track & field programs. He collected his first career All-East award with his 11th place finish to help lead Stonehill to the NCAA Division II East Regional championship and 11th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships as he completed the 10-kilometer course in 32:19.6. Wilcox added All-Region honors following the 2014 Outdoor Track season for the 10,000-meter run with his personal-best time of 31:56.59 at the Colonial Relays in April. The three-time New England Championships qualifier has earned All-New England honors twice with a second place finish in the 10,000-meter run in 2013 (32:02.05) to go with an eighth place finish at the 2014 Indoor championships in the 5000-meter run (14:59.93).

Wilcox is an All-Northeast-10 performer in cross country each of the last two seasons, helping Stonehill to a pair of NE-10 titles. He finished 14th at the 2013 NE-10 Championships (26:02.5) to go with an eighth place finish in 2012 (25:50.8). Wilcox won the 2013 NE-10 10,000-meter championship at the Outdoor Championships with a time of 32:08.09 to also collect All-Northeast-10 honors, finishing sixth in the event this spring (33:12.05).

Fontanella earns Capital One Academic All-District I honors for the first time in his career, having earned a 3.70 cumulative grade point average as a criminology and psychology major at Stonehill. While he will return for one more semester and compete with the cross country program, Fontanella recently received the College's Edward E. Martin Scholar-Athlete Award at the annual Senior Student-Athlete Dinner and is a four-time Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference selection with a pair of awards for indoor track & field (2013 & 2014) and one each for cross country (2013) and outdoor track (2013) to date. He has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all eight semesters and Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven semesters and is a member of both the Edwin H. Sutherland and Psi Chi Honor Societies. Fontanella is a two-time Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award recipient and Stonehill's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Chairperson.

Fontanella is a two-time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer at Stonehill, collecting the honors for the 3000-meter run this past winter for the indoor track season and 5000-meter run this spring for the outdoor season. He posted a personal-best time of 8:29.90 in the 3000-meters at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University in February to go with his season-best time of 14:58.65 to finish 14th in the 5000-meters at the New England Outdoor Championships. The four-time New England Championships qualifier has earned three All-Northeast-10 awards over his career. He is a two-time All-NE-10 performer for cross country, placing 17th at the 2011 NE-10 Championships (25:08.21) and eighth in 2013 (25:49) over the eight-kilometer run. Fontanella added a second place finish at the NE-10 Indoor Track & Field Championships in the 3000-meter run in February (8:37.76).

Senior Stephen Leonard is a two-time Academic All-District first team honoree. (PHOTO BY SportsPix)

Kirkpatrick earns Academic All-District honors for the first time with his 3.73 cumulative grade point average as an electrical engineering major at Stonehill. He earned Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference honors for the first time this past winter for indoor track and has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all four semesters at the College to date. Kirkpatrick earned the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal at the annual Academic Excellence Recognition Breakfast for having the highest cumulative GPA for both the men's cross country and track & field programs.

Kirkpatrick was a member of Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay team which earned All-America honors with a seventh place finish at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in March with a time of 9:58.33, running the opening 1200-meter leg. Kirkpatrick earned USTFCCCA All-East Region honors for both the DMR and the one mile run after a personal-best time of 4:17.70 to finish fourth at the University of Rhode Island Coaches' Tribute meet in February. He is also part of Stonehill's school-record 4x800-meter relay team that finished second at the 2013 New England Outdoor Championships in 7:34.77.

Kirkpatrick has earned three All-New England awards with the 4x800-meter relay, finishing eighth at the 2013 Indoor Championships (7:42.58) and fourth at the 2014 Indoor Championships (7:42.33). He has collected All-Northeast-10 honors with the 4x800 at the 2013 Indoor Championships (7:54.13) as well as the 1000-meter run (2:30.09) in 2014.

The Stonehill men's cross country and track and field programs continued their run of excellence during the 2013-14 academic year. Cross country captured its third straight Northeast-10 Conference Championship (seventh overall) and went on to win the NCAA East Regional for the third time in program history to earn an 11th-straight trip to the NCAA Division II Championships. Stonehill also placed second at both the NE-10 Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships, marking the fourth-straight year the Skyhawks have finished in the top two during the indoor season and third runner-up finish over the last four outdoor championships. The Skyhawks placed fifth at the New England Indoor Championships and 23rd at the Outdoor Championships, placing a combined seven student-athletes in the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, collecting a pair of All-America awards.

With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. The Skyhawks have finished in the top three in the final NE-10 Presidents' Cup standings nine straight years, winning the Cup four times, including a streak of three-straight from 2009-10 through 2011-12. This prestigious award is given to the top performing athletic school in the Northeast-10, across all sports and seasons. Stonehill has received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first three years of the program's existence of honoring programs with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. The Skyhawks have earned a 97% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for fifth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with ten Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked sixth in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs.